Adam Richards Architects' competition entry for student accommodation at the Atlantic College in Wales takes the form of four three-storey, barn-like structures linked by a woodland path. Prefabricated bedrooms and bathrooms are plugged into in-situ concrete boxes, which are stacked inside the barns. A top-lit study bedroom runs the length of each building under the eaves.

Phil Coffey's theoretical project for Glasgow combines an urban design proposal with a design for a new extension for the existing Tron Theatre. The public realm of the new theatre building is conceived as an extension of a promenade created by a new linear park. Outdoor rehearsal spaces allow members of the public to watch the actors at work. The project aims to link the much-neglected area of the Gorbals with Glasgow's vibrant cultural centre, the Merchant City.

Nestled in a back garden, this newly completed London studio by Sanei Hopkins Architects has raking glass beams supporting the glass roof and fold-away glass doors. It also has a sauna and steam room, one enclosed by a white-rendered, blob-like enclosure, the other concealed in a mirrored box.

The Hub is a competition-winning design by Andy Puncher and Andrew Hamilton at Hawkins\Brown for a civic and cultural centre in the former steel town of Corby. The project uses the language of a department store, presenting its services in 'shop windows' to an internal street.

Rob Gregory acted as client, contractor and architect on the refurbishment of Becket Hall in Bristol. The project is part of an ongoing crusade to revive historic buildings by campaigning and writing, as well as by direct action. The hall is set in a medieval courtyard among a group of old buildings, including a church and 15th-century merchants' houses. Long-term development plans are still in negotiation with the owners of the medieval houses and the Churches Conservation Trust, but ...

Hakes Associates' competition-winning design for a £1.6 million chapel for the London School of Theology comprises a 350-seat chapel, entrance building and link block. Daylight passes through long triangular openings in the facade in order to create a soft, diffused, reflective light within the chapel.

There is often an assumption in the brief that 'good architecture'can help to improve education by providing a more stimulating environment. Environment is undoubtedly important but it is not the only way that architects can help.

I did not know I would be going to a beach party - I was driven to a beach to swim.A typical Mykonos beach: a sandy bay, the most vibrant azure water, so bright it looked as if there were blue strip-lights on the sea bed.

A calm sea prevents all perception of distance.Points of reference are denied and our humble guess is worthless.A calm sea holds all the space that can be imagined until a sea mist returns us to a measured view.

I have often talked about the threat of risk in our society and how it militates against architectural innovation and new thinking; and the rise of the project manager and the QS whose prime responsibility is to stem the notion of pushing at the edges. They do this by overpricing elements that, as yet, have not been properly exposed to analysis - evidence that Thatcher's, and now Blair's, children are ultra-conservative and see only profit as the prime objective. I am therefore interested ...

Wakefield - a city that everyone knows of but few have visited - feels good.This city, that was once of great importance as the centre of local government for West Riding, was painted by Turner as he sat on the banks of the River Calder looking towards a skyline which largely still exists, with some additions.

It seems like a long while ago, and yet also likeyesterday, that Charles Jencks produced a diagram for the magazine Architectural Design which showed a timeline of architectural evolution from 1920 up to 2005 or thereabouts.

At this time of year, the mind becomes more expansive and we look for challenges and opportunities that will feed us for the long winter months of work. This is the season of the summer-school workshop, usually associated with students. But as I get older, I feel it is more important that these events are directed at those who have been qualified for a while. As we see from the development of climbing, new inventions come out of new forms of play: for example, 'free climbing', without ...

I am on my way to the Venice Art Biennale to take part in a discussion about both the future and the form of the Biennale. I suspect that, whatever I say, nothing will change, as this event is old and - like the Chelsea Flower Show and Wimbledon - is part of the social calendar that endures.

The SARS mask means that you do not know what the wearer is thinking. It gives new meaning to Chinese inscrutability. I expect some people look better with it on. I am between Hong Kong and Shanghai, where thoughts about cladding come easily - there is a lot of it about, covering a multitude of sins.

A sense of expectation as you rise and observe that the window contains a view of morning sun on a calm, almost transparent, sea. This day has the promise of all those holidays of my youth that started with an eastern nautical view. A day of fantasy in sand and, later, model boats.A day in prospect on the Italian sea-fields.

I live in a beautiful urban sprawl, in a dissected city with no streets, avenues, boulevards, closes or ramblas. In my city, which is 80 miles long and 15 miles wide, I enjoy points where I can be alone in an urban wilderness. I drive a car/van that is specially designed to suit these dimensions.

The first-year students at Kingston School of Architecture have been asked to end their year by considering the site of a disused boathouse on the River Medway, opposite the new development of housing by Countryside Properties and the historic naval dockyard. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and currently not accessible, except at low tide along the foreshore. I suspect this place is beautiful, although my own experience is limited to a distant view across the Medway ...

There is a plethora of initiatives dealing with the issues of schools and education.Those of a more architectural nature tend to assume that a well-designed, cost-effective edifice will result in a better environment, which will inevitably lead to a happier school community - in turn reflected in academic achievement. I would not disagree with any of that, but when it comes to titles such as the 'School of the Future', the architect must extend the opportunity to fundamentally explore ...

However dysfunctional an existing town or city is, I believe it is important to leave the existing structure, buildings and businesses as they are. Very often the apparent detritus is the lifeblood of the place. In the process of regeneration we often find an obsession with clearance in order to make sites for new constructions. This process is not only disruptive and deeply worrying to the incumbent inhabitants, but it very often leads to the replacement of one sin with another.

There are a lot of shops in Capri. There are probably more bars. There are, with the exception of some municipal buildings, no offices. There are, of course, hotels, health farms and houses. Gracie Fields lived here after all, and the Villa Malaparte was built.

Lounge lizards are the modern-day equivalent of the pub crawler. These people who know the tasteful, over-zealous, even downright pretentious stylistic traits of the hip hotel owners, absorb all the variations that make up the dictionary of interior design.

Looking into the future is an important and necessary activity for architects. If part of our job is to anticipate, we must indulge in speculation about times to come.Looking into the crystal ball divides into two categories.The first is looking at a way forward based on current evidence of bad practice and proposing new courses of action, which can become policy.

On 8 July 1999, Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, announced the government's decision to privatise the Post Office. Tony Blair gave no assurances that he would not sell off the shares. This decision has subsequently removed the Post Office from many locations in our country and cities.

Friedrich Kiesler, born 1890 (died1965), is one of those figures that can be claimed by architects and artists alike as a major influence on their practices. His work ranged between architecture, theatre design, installation and theory, in a way that is difficult to achieve today in our world of compartmentalisation and management. I have always thought of him as one of my heroes and his work has definitely influenced mine, although it would be difficult to be specific as to how. One ...

My old friend and colleague, the sculptor Gareth Jones, came to stay for a few days last week, on a rare return to the UK from his home in Providence, Rhode Island.Although there are often up to 18-month gaps between our meetings, the conversation, aided by interim transatlantic phone calls, always picks up as though we frequently shared drinks and food.

As I write I am flying over Rangoon (or whatever it is called these days).To the north up the Irrawaddy lies Mandalay on that famous road.A little to the east is Chittagong & Cox's Bazaar.These names contain within them all the romantic adventure that it is possible to stir up in the imagination of a 10year-old.

Last night I had dinner with Robert Stern and Cesar Pelli. Stern is the current dean of architecture at Yale and Pelli was his predecessor. I am sitting with two charming people who belong to an American clan that would appear to make decisions regarding the circle of architects that is destined to prevail.

Toothpaste tubes are very interesting. This apparently innocuous convenience carries with it many properties, including a variety of taboos. When the tube was made of soft, leadlike metal it became frowned upon to squeeze it from anywhere else except the bottom. It was considered both rude and uncouth to squeeze it in the middle because this behaviour resulted in some of the paste being forced to the bottom of the tube, thereby making it more inconvenient for the next user. In fact, ...

Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha, was born into a privileged position. His father was the king of a powerful nation and he was the prince who would inherit it all. His mother, Maya, died shortly after his birth.A hermit called Asita, who lived in the mountains not far away, noticed a radiance about the castle. Interpreting it as a good omen, he came down to the palace and was shown the child.He predicted: 'This prince, if he remains in the palace, will grow up to become a great king ...

No sport, no culture, no joy. Any Iraqi war is affordable; a festival of physical competition is not. I think the banks are very generous to take the blame for the government's lukewarm attitude towards the staging of the Olympics.

Not that long ago there were people that lived in an area of 25 square miles all their lives. Their world was longer than ours because everything over the horizon was unknown and only existed in the stories that visitors told.Like the universe is to us, their world is infinite. When we talk about the world 'growing smaller', we are not only talking about time shrinkage but also in terms of reduced mystery.

I first visited Muncie, Indiana in 1977, 25 years ago. It was my first visit to the US and, in spite of two days in New York City on route, it proved to be a trip that truly represented America. Muncie sits in the Bible belt, full square on flat land that seems to go on forever. Hoosier County is full of people that are not sure where London is, or indeed whether Europe is a country or a state. This is not their fault, as they have no newspaper and the TV stations only talk about Indiana, ...

I am sitting on a train just north of Doncaster going nowhere. The new power unit has managed to collect debris from an overhead gantry as well as some overhead power cables. No one knows how long we will be sitting here. All this as the Strategic Rail Authority is saying that there will be less money available to repair our train network and that operating companies will receive less subsidy, which will result in reduced services and increased cost to the passengers.

Train tracks are indiscriminate in the places that they link. The connections are often surprising. Although a short distance, the track between Liverpool and Euston has some unlikely bedfellows and some extraordinary likeliness. The overpriced day return ticket permits views of places old and new, famous and inconsequential, ugly and beautiful.

What is a masterplan? At its simplest it remains an abstract pattern of movement, land use and a list of limitations. This is usually not understood by anyone. The world is full of such plans, some implemented, some forgotten and most simply bastardised so as to make the initial exercise pointless.

Drawing is a delight, and yet, in spite of this fact, the vast majority of the population would maintain that they cannot do it. What is really worrying about this is that they feel no shame at this admission. If we asked if they could read, or were capable of performing relatively simple mathematical operations, everyone would be embarrassed to answer no, as a negative would be evidence of a lack of education and culture. And yet an inability to express oneself through a two-dimensional ...

I am sitting with a gin and tonic on the roof terrace of the Hotel Danieli in Venice. I view extremely expensive boats ambling down the Giuduecca with their owners sipping champagne, taking in the early evening view of the city from the water.From my static vantage point I can see across to the Lido and, as I turn my head to the right, the Salute church, the Grand Canal and the flush wall of the Doge's Palace.

What a joy to wake up to a man on the radio talking about the importance of creative uncertainty, doubt and mystery. He was discussing these qualities in relationship to education, but to me, as I lay in my bed, I was more fascinated by the reference of the words to life in general and architecture in particular.

The concept of freedom changes from time to time. The Aristotle school of thought believed that freedom came from a sense of reason and that if a group of beings that may resemble humans had no reason, their destiny was slavery.

Since I started writing this column 18 months ago, three of my close friends have died, of which Malcolm Pollard, the artist, was the last (19 June). This is a sad and depressing fact, as they were all special people who, quite apart from their charm and beauty, lived dogged lives of principle, which often cast them outside the mainstream of their professions.

I am sitting in a hall in Barnsley with 200 people. It is Saturday afternoon and the townsfolk, with a liberal dose of consultants, are reporting back to each other about their workshops, which explored the future of the town. The weekend was kicked off with the world premier of the Alsop movie, by Squint Opera, concerning the future and the 'possibilities of clearer definition, town living, increased density and mixed use'.

I've just walked around City Hall, Toronto, for 10 minutes. While doing so, three different coach-loads of people parked, unloaded, photographed it and left. These were not the infamous herds of Japanese or American tourists - they were Canadian.

I am sitting high above the North Atlantic looking down on clouds of distinction hovering over a watery desert, wondering if Paul Hyett is the youngest RIBA president ever. I cannot check this here, but I suspect he is one of the youngest.

The extent of the market-led society can be imagined as an endless wall-to-wall floral carpet from Swindon to Newcastle, with Laura Ashley drapery and flat-pack loft conversion bits ordered from the Sunday Times .

I am not usually paranoid, but I am beginning to think that whenever I spend time in other places, the politics swing to the right. My first brush with groups that make Mrs Thatcher look like the sister of Karl Marx was in Marseilles.

The Royal Society of Arts will celebrate 250 years of existence in 2004. For a quarter of a Millennium it has promoted a search for answers to questions related to the furtherance of arts, commerce and manufacturing.

'Nothing is lost, 'says Mel Gooding, the writer and critic. By this he means that everything you do seems to have value at the time of doing it. I subscribe to the view that most people have developed their main ideas and concepts by the age of 25, and that thereafter they spend their time trying to understand them.

What is an appropriate way to think about an architectural practice and what, if any, is a practice's responsibility towards architectural education and speculation? Kierkegaard made the following observation: 'Life is to be lived forwards and understood backwards.'

My editor threw down the gauntlet to me in her editorial (AJ 21.3.02) as, yet again, we had to endure the AJ100 in all its full analysis. Of course, I think we all understand that the firms on the list are not ranked by quality or imagination which leads me to my question: why do it?

I have just said goodbye to my friend, the artist Gareth Jones, in Rhode Island. Gareth and I used to teach sculpture together at Central St Martins School of Art in 1973. In 1987 he moved to the US, where he has been teaching at Rhode Island School of Design ever since.

I am sitting on an Air New Zealand flight bound for Los Angeles. I boarded this flight in Sydney, Australia. When I reach Los Angeles, I will immediately travel on to Toronto. This brief trip around the world is what could be called the Empire tour.

My son Piers has always shown a mistrust of the new. As a consequence, the computer is regarded more as a potential enemy than a friend. For 17 years, he has managed to skirt around technology without apparent loss.

Last night I met with 10 people from St Paul's Church in Rotterdam. I am designing a new series of buildings within the city which includes the demolition and rebuilding of the church. The meeting was my first with them, and therefore laced with a little nervousness on my part and scepticism on theirs. Both these conditions were partially eased by the presence of red wine.

What are students thinking about? Students represent a barometer which predicts, admittedly somewhat erratically, possible concerns that may become more central to practice in the future. Students in the past have concerned themselves with environmental issues as well as a community action, long before practising architects began to take these issues seriously.

Masterplanning, urban design, town planning, public realm - who cares? The fact remains that all of these concepts have not been taken seriously in the UK, and as a result the quality of our towns and cities is all the worse.

David Blunkett is struggling with his terrorist bill, which has within it an inherent idea of what is acceptable behaviour to an assumed British sensibility.Although not intended, it is a type of definition of culture. If we wish to live in a multicultural society, we may have to accept that the texture of day-to-day life will not always seem as smooth as it always used to be remembered.

I was struck by the Rem Koolhaas plagiarism case regarding the Rotterdam Kunsthal building.The aggrieved Gareth Pearce's claim that his diploma work had been copied by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture and reproduced in the art gallery was preposterous!

Culture and religion are the two great inventions of civilisation. Both of them employ the imagination in a divine manner to the point where we do not have to be reminded that there is a separation between reality and fantasy. The development of 20th-century thought has represented a severe questioning of the value of those things that cannot be measured - in many areas of life, but, in particular, art and architecture.

Ten years ago, when the Architecture Foundation was set up, the context was rather different. The UK was ensconced in a deep economic recession, and the architecture scene was weighed down with notions of how we should behave as it tried to drag itself out of the quagmire of High-Tech. Roger Scruton and Prince Charles were still obstructing invention and Norman Foster seemed to be everywhere - he still is everywhere and we still find boring young farts trying to nail down architecture ...

The defence of towns and cities, often achieved by walls, has unwittingly produced great rewards. The walls around Lucca in Tuscany, which were started in the 16th century, are 4.2km of uninterrupted structure.Their construction was initiated by the Medici family as it went to great lengths to expand its stately domain. A host of military architects was commissioned to execute the task, which took approximately 100 years to complete. The only adaptation to the walls - 10m high, and ...

Sitting on the airline from Prague to Vienna after a dull and rainy day, a man squeezed into the seat next to me and announced that he was moving to be able to see the sun's last glory as we rose above the clouds. He talked of his new seat as being an airborne leisure centre and himself as a tourist. Who knows what he was dreaming about as we passed through the cloud layer to reveal a dying red ember, a reminder of the Prague day that had remained shapeless since breakfast. Was he Czech ...

Architects are capable of producing places that all will enjoy, but society does not let them. In practice, there seems to be some conspiracy that prevents the really good project being realised. Competitions were seen as a solution. However, the British have managed to develop a competition system which often makes things worse. How did we do that? The jury is often composed of laymen, with just one or two architects in an advisory role. To be frank, the decisionmakers are not qualified ...

Runway - that place which allows aircraft to propel themselves to the corners of the earth and back. Landing strip - a sense of arrival tinged with relief. Why do we not refer to the departure strip? At night, we all know, but do not see, that this patch of land is lit like a Christmas tree.

Sometimes a place will seem familiar even though it is new to you. I am not talking about deja vu - the feeling I am describing is much more specific. It may simply belong to a fleeting moment when the conditions of the light, combined with the time of the day and your own frame of mind, are all working together, resulting in a sense of correctness. This view shown here is taken from the sea, 20m from the shore. The picture frame is divided into horizontal bands. The water itself, with ...

Michael Owens has lived in London for more than 20 years and understands the East End better than most. Now head of Leaside Regeneration, he aims to ensure that local people benefit from the developments on their doorstep

'The sublime is a matter of subjective experience not a quality of the objects that induce it. Beauty, on the other hand, is found in the form of objects, defined in terms of their limits, and definable as such, and conducive to a feeling of the furtherance of life, and is thus compatible with charms and a playful imagination' - Burke.

I have just returned from a 60th birthday lunch. It is now 6pm and I am sitting at my garden table contemplating the day. The birthday party was for Mel Gooding, 60 (the new 50), the art observer, critic and friend.

Foot-and-mouth not only afflicts cattle. Since the outbreak started it has stopped people using their feet and, more significantly, has given rise to some of the most obscure misinformation by mouth. I am still confused about the best use of vaccination, whether funeral pyres are really no worse than bonfire nights or indeed if the consumption of meat is either necessary or desirable.

I like people who like their gardens.Even if the result of their love and attention would send any self-respecting landscape architect into apoplexy, these people are calm, collected and seemingly content.For them, it is a retreat from all that might trouble the mind. I am not talking about the small urban and suburban offering - although the same approach can extend to the larger areas.Two men I know in Norfolk have transformed a 12-acre field into an extraordinary amalgam of gardens.The ...

One of the questions which occurred to me when I was teaching sculpture was whether the student had ever had an art experience. If a prospective artist has never been moved by someone else's art, how can they stumble across this sensation in their own work? This can, of course, be asked of architects.Some so-called professional artists and architects go to the grave with this particular ignorance.

I am sitting in the piano bar of the La Mamounia in Marrakesh listening to a bowlegged American pianist playing to an empty room. The place, once the haunt of Winston Churchill, is not only an oasis but a retreat.

I did not submit any information for this year's AJ100 list. When the forms for submission arrived I was going through an intense period of redefining my practice and the questions on the form looked superfluous.

Seven hundred expectant people filled the Munich hall, waiting to hear three British architects talk about their work. The seats were so comfortable they could send anyone off to sleep, surely one of the great dangers for any architect on the lecture circuit. But in this case there was no risk of the first speaker sending anyone to sleep, as it was that great English enthusiast and architect Peter Cook.

I am returning from Ontario with Isabel Brebbia from Alsop Architects. She is a bright, fresh and talented young architect, who originally came to me from the Bartlett on the recommendation of architect and teacher Colin Fournier, whose judgement is impeccable. We presented our first ideas for a new college of art and design. After two-anda-half days of intensive workshops, meetings, planning regulations and drinking I observed Isabel's enormous appetite for challenge. She has been ...

I was saddened by the news of Sir Denys Lasdun's death. My first discovery of his work was from the Northampton to London bus which cut through Regent's Park past the Royal College of Physicians en route to Victoria. To me this edifice was very new.

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